Boy! Oh Buoy!

Tsunami Detection Buoy Installed 350 Kilometers South of Bali

(11/27/2011) Following a breakdown in 2007 linked to equipment failure, The Agency For The Assessment And Application Of Technology
(BPPT) in cooperation with the government of Australia, has re-launched a tsunami detector in the seas south of Bali. In a ceremony held on board the MV Baruna Jaya IV at Bali’s port of Benoa on Wednesday, November 23, 2011, the tsunami detector was rechristened before its eventual installation in the ocean some 350 kilometers south of the island.

Quoted in NusaBali, Wayan Wira Yogantara of the Indonesia Tsunami Buoy Team, said: Because the tsunami detector installed in 2007 experienced a malfunction, BPPT in cooperation with Australia is now installing a detector south of Bali.”

Ridwan Djamaludin, the Deputy Chief of BPPT, said the installation of the buoy was essential as part of an early warning system against any tsunami threat that might come from the south. The warnings issued by the equipment have the potential of saving lives of coastal people living in Indonesia and Australia.

The detection system is comprised of a buoy that floats on the ocean’s surface and an Ocean Bottom Unit (OBU) installed on sea’s floor. The two instruments, working in tandem, constantly monitor the ocean’s depth, communicating this information to a satellite system that instantly relays the data to Australia and Indonesia centers that monitor the threat of natural disasters. Ridwan explained that it takes only 1.5 minutes for a change in the ocean’s depth to be reported to land stations and no more than 10 minutes to interpret the raw data and relay an early warning to the public in Australia and Indonesia.

The new buoy is being installed in waters that are 4,600 meters deep.

Ridwan called on coastal peoples, particularly fishermen, to safeguard the tsunami detection buoys, bearing in mind the detectors' importance to protecting the lives of thousands of people living on the surrounding shores.